Top 5 Indian Entrepreneurs

1. Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani (1932-2002) is an Indian businessman who started out humbly by selling traditional snacks to religious pilgrims. His business soon grew, and he expanded and diversified into industries including telecommunications, power generation, information technology, consumer goods, and logistics.

Today, Reliance Industries is India's largest private company and is listed on the Fortune 500. Ambani's sons now run Reliance and are some of India's wealthiest people: Mukesh Ambani, 63, is worth over $51.78 billion and Anil Ambani, 60, who used to be the sixth-richest person in the world, is now worth an estimated $109 million.

2. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata or JRD Tata (1904-1993) was born in Paris to Indian and French parents. He was trained as an aviator in Europe and later became India's first commercial airline pilot. Working for the family business, TATA group, he set out on his own and built TATA Airlines, which ultimately became the modern Air India.

By the time of JRD Tata's death, TATA owned nearly 100 different businesses across many industries. Notably, his automobile venture, Tata Motors (TTM), produces economical automobiles that nearly all working Indians can afford to own. JRD Tata is descended from Jamsetji Tata who founded the TATA group of companies in the mid-1800s.

3. Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy

Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, age 73, is an Indian entrepreneur who co-founded IT giant Infosys (INFY) with an initial investment of 10,000 rupees, or just a few hundred dollars in today's terms.

With a net worth of $2.1 billion, he is often referred to as the father of the Indian IT industry, serving as CEO of Infosys from 1981 until 2002, and then its chairman until 2011. As of April 2020, Infosys has a market capitalization of around $37 billion.

4. Shiv Nadar

Shiv Nadar, 74, founded HCL Infosystems in 1976 with an investment of a few thousand dollars, selling calculators and microcomputers. HCL soon expanded to Singapore and the far east, generating over 1 million rupees in sales not long after its expansion. HCL has continued to grow, making Nadar a billionaire worth over $12.4 billion.

5. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, 69, is an Indian entrepreneur who began his career working for his father's steel business. He later set out on his own, due to family infighting and created what is now one of the largest steelmakers in the world, ArcelorMittal (MT). As of April 2020, ArcelorMittal has a market capitalization of over $10 billion.14 Mittal himself is worth nearly $9 billion.